Scathing Bay was created by the destruction of Vivec City during the Red Year of 4E 5, when the Ministry of Truth smashed in the city with the same momentum it had before Vivec froze it in place.[1][2][3] It is the almost perfectly circular crater of water where the city and the surrounding area used to be. The cantons, the lagoons, and beyond were replaced with boiling water, charred shores, and the stink of hard minerals from the steam.[1]

The rim of the enormous crater forms the bay's shores and rises up above the water. A relatively small break in the southern part of this rim is all that connects the bay to the Inner Sea. Some vegetation still manages to grow in the surrounding area; the surrounding hillsides are filled with various flowering plants, and Emperor Parasols still dot the landscape. The Argonians have a ritual associated with the bay. The bay is apparently largely empty except for a small jagged island of ash near the center, which is believed to be where the High Fane of the Tribunal Temple was located. The sword Umbra was found here by a group of Dunmer scavengers. When the floating city Umbriel passed over it in 4E 40, legions of the dead rose up out of the boiling waters.[1]

The Scathing Bay's size and the force of the blast which created it are unknown, but at least one survivor on the mainland was knocked off his feet by the blast, and was close enough to see the cantons of the city fall apart.[4]